On the way to the Wizard of Wines, the party finds a corpse that raises questions about one of their own. After evading the dangers of the road, they arrive at the vineyard and meet its former occupants, the Martikovs, hiding in the woods. The heroes confront evil druids occupying the winery, who wield dark magic and command an army of unnatural blights, in a fierce battle to reclaim the vineyard.
Player Characters: Barsun, Casaba, Dan, Gydean, Kane, Nyr
Part 5. The Battle of the Vineyard
I.
The road to the vineyard led the party near to the high mountains. The terrain rose up and fell again as if the land was frozen in great waves. The crests of the hilltops were swept by cold winds. Upon one of the hilltops, the air grew exceedingly cold, and the ground seemed to be covered by patches of frost. Ireena pulled up her scarf for warmth and protection. It was here that the party stumbled upon a frozen corpse on the ground.
When Kane went to get a closer look, he was startled to see that the corpse looked just like himself! But it was much younger than him. It was wearing all of the same gear that he had been wearing when he had been in the valley of Barovia for only a year. It was then that Kane and Gydean recalled that there was a gap of time, a year after they had arrived through the mists, when they were separated for about one month. Neither knew where the other had been during that time for they had never spoken about it in all these years.
Kane tried to pick up the corpse, but it dissolved in his arms, leaving only the moistness of melted snow upon his limbs. The party was deeply disturbed by this strange and unnatural event, but finding that the riddle could not be answered, they pressed on toward the vineyard.
An hour later, they passed a deep trough between the hills where the trees rose up around them like oppressive walls. Even though it was still daytime, the trees were so close together that their canopy cast an impenetrable shadow which the heroes’ eyes could not pierce. Yet they felt that there were eyes among the shadows of the trees that were watching them as they passed.
The party quickened their pace and tried to outrun the eyes inside the woods. But the feeling of being watched did not leave them. As they continued, a fog rose up all around them. Then through the fog, they saw the shadows of three lumbering figures. Their bodies were covered with needles and vines. They might have looked like walking saplings, but their rotten forms were a hideous blight upon nature.
The heroes hid in the woods. Fortunately, they were not discovered by the monstrous blights. But they noted with concern that the blights came from the direction of the vineyard. When the monsters had passed and disappeared into the fog, the heroes hurried along the road.
II.
As they came over the final hilltop, the vineyard lay before them. It was a vast plantation with row upon row of grapevines. But the grapevines were all withered and grey. It was clear at a glance at the vineyard was dying, and large swathes of it already seemed beyond hope. As they surveyed the land, raindrops began to fall from the dark clouds overhead.
The fog cleared slightly and the silhouette of a large two storey building came into view. This was the place that Gydean had seen inside Urwin’s thoughts, but it looked nothing at all like the busy winery from the innkeeper’s memory. This dark and desolute house looked like a solitary mourner crouched at the bedside of the dying vineyard.
The heroes saw something stirring in the woods beside the road. They drew their weapons and prepared for an ambush, but it was an old man wearing a tattered cloak and carrying an oaken branch for a cane. He looked like an older version of Urwin Martikov. The old man hobbled toward them on his cane with an almost birdlike gait. He greeted the party furtively and ushered them into the shadows of the trees.
The old man introduced himself as Davian Martikov, the owner of the Wizard of Wines and the father of Urwin Martikov. He was hiding in the woods near the vineyard with eight other members of his family. It soon became clear that Davian, his wife, their children and grandchildren were all afflicted with lycanthropy. They were wereravens, just like Urwin the innkeeper.
“So, that idiot son of mine finally saw fit to find out why I haven’t been sending any wine shipments to Vallaki. How could I now, when I’ve been run out of my own vineyard with my tail feathers between my legs by those cursed druids! They and that foul witch Baba Lysaga have waged war upon us these past months. First, the witch came and stole one of our magic gems. Then, the druids came and carried off the other gem, back to their horrid nest upon Yester Hill, before driving us from our home. Now the Wizard of Wines has been corrupted by those miserable druids and their army of blights. Even if we can somehow reclaim the winery, we are lost without the power of the gems to nourish the earth and the grapes. Without grapes to make wine for the valley, the people of the land will lose all hope. What is an old crow to do?”
After hearing Davian’s lamentations, the party assured him that they would retake the Wizard of Wines from the druids occupying it. They prepared themselves for the battle ahead and stepped out of the woods.
III.
As the heroes approached the vineyard, they could see movement among the rows of grapevines. Small twig-like creatures were coming to life. They were smaller than the needle monsters that the party had seen earlier, but they were far more numerous. Dozens of them were lurking all across the fields. Now they were lurching towards the party and began to surround them. The green beeds of light that made for their eyes glimmered grotesquely as they raised their slender limbs ending in claw-like branches. The party braced itself for the onslaught of these unnatural blights. Barsun, Dan, and Nyr readied their crossbows while Casaba, Gydean and Kane prepared their spells. The Battle of the Vineyard had begun.
The heroes raised up their rods and crossbows. Volleys of eldritch magic and crossbow bolts rained across the field. The blights were shattered and blasted to pieces, but behind them more came to replace the ones that had fallen.
Then the lights went on inside the winery. Druids dressed in dark animal furs emerged from the building, drawn out by the sounds of the battle. Each druid gathered up dozens of more blights and led them into the field, shouting curses at the heroes in a strange druidic language. It was a dark hour for the heroes as swarms of blights and their druid commanders threatened to overwhelm the party.
It was then that Nyr showed her mastery of the crossbow. Taking aim at her enemies, she loosed a volley of bolts in rapid succession. Her well-aimed bolts pierced a druid’s eye, dropping him dead, and fell upon a cluster of nearby blights, shattering them into pieces. Nyr’s skill as a sharpshooter left her companions in awe and emboldened them in the fight. Taking advantage of the hole in the enemy lines, they focused their attacks on the druids, bringing them down one after the other.
Yet the blights continued to march forward! Clearly these creatures were being animated by some power that the heroes had yet to see. It was then that Kane recalled the legend of the Gulthias Tree, an evil plant whose branches were used to craft staves of dark power. One of these Gulthias staves might have been used to empower the blights in the vineyard. None of the druids that came into the field had carried such a relic. If the staff were nearby, the heroes guessed that it must still be inside the winery.
As the swarm of blights closed in around them, the heroes found salvation in the most unlikely place. Casaba saw how desperate their situation had become. Using his most powerful magic, he conjured the spirits of his goblin ancestors. His companions were drawing close together and preparing to make their last stand, when the fey specters of goblin jesters materialized from the fog and rose up from the ground. These spirit guardians, who had a ghoulish appearance and wore grotesque masks and costumes, danced around the heroes and tore apart the blights that came near them. They used the limbs of the dismembered blights to strike down the remaining blights with fearsome blows, like percussionists banging furiously upon their drums. The grotesque rhythm of wooden limbs snapping, cracking, and breaking was music to Casaba’s ears, and for the first time in many days he felt quite at home. When the fey spirits had departed, all that remained were great piles of broken twigs all around the party.
The Battle of the Vineyard had been won. The heroes entered the winery and found the last remaining druid hiding alone inside a storage room. He was holding a dark wooden staff that was grim to look upon. Kane guess that this was the Gulthias Staff. The party frightened the druid into submission and disarmed him, then placed him in bonds.
Gydean felt the Sunsword shudder with rage in the presence of the Gulthias staff. He drew the black sword hilt which ignited into a blade of sunlight. Then for the second time, a beacon of light pierced the darkness of the valley. The Sunsword sliced through the evil relic as if cutting through mere mist, turning its dark wood into ash. In an fiery instant, the staff was no more, and the corruption that had filled the vineyard had been lifted. The blights that still lurked outside the winery fell and disintegrated, returning to the soil.
The druid spat at the heroes and cursed them for their deeds, this time in a language that they knew.
“You fools! You know not what you have done. You have brought the wrath of the Dark Lord upon you. Strahd von Zarovich, the master of this land, will avenge me and my kind. You are all doomed! DOOMED!”
The druid cackled in his bonds until his skull was crushed in like a melon by Kane’s vengeful fist.
IV.
The Wizard of Wines had been reclaimed from the fell druids that had occupied it. Davian Martikov and his family returned to the winery and began to clean up the place. They were grateful to the party for their heroic deeds, but they feared that without any of the magic gems to nurture the soil, the grapevines would wither and perish. Without grapes to produce more wine, the people of the valley would be lost without even a glimmer of hope.
Now it was up to the party to journey to Yester Hill to recover the stolen gem from the druids, or find a way to repair the broken gem from Berez. They had yet to reveal to Davian what had happened to the gem in Baba Lysaga’s hut, fearing it would break the old man’s heart.
Nor had they told what had happened to the last druid inside the winery. Not all the members of the party were pleased when Kane had murdered him after he had surrendered, but they did not speak of it.
Yet the Sunsword was not displeased. Gydean sensed that it accepted the vengeful punishment visited against a druid who seemed to worship Strahd von Zarovich as one might worship a god. It became increasingly clear to Gydean that the Sunsword was no longer a relic of goodness and light, but a weapon seeking fiery vengeance for the wrongful deeds done unto its former master Sergei and itself.
Cespenar the Imp alone among the party was pleased to see the darkness falling over a hero’s heart.
Session #3 Rewards
4 Advancement Checkpoints
4 Treasure Checkpoints
10 Downtime Days